While the economy still lags, more and more companies are discovering the importance of keeping their contact center solutions up to date. Customer demands are continuing to rise along with their expectations, and a flat economy means that it’s more critical than ever for companies to provide better customer service than their competitors.

Cloud-based contact centers are one of those areas experiencing growth. Many forward-thinking companies are replacing legacy contact center equipment with cloud solutions to reap the benefits of the latter: anywhere access to the system via a Web-browser, easier administration with less need to maintain a large IT department, flexibility and little to no upfront capital costs.

San Ramon, California-based cloud contact center solutions provider recently announced the results of its successful second quarter for this year. Five9 (News - Alert), which introduced a new version of its solution during the quarter, also raised $34.5M in private funding. Today, the company says 150 organizations are currently using Five9 via the Salesforce Platform to accelerate customer company transformation.

"Five9 continues to lead the cloud contact center software industry as exemplified by our latest software innovations, successful partnerships with leading CRM solutions like Salesforce and significant recognition by the cloud community. As Five9 enters the second half of the year, the company will continue to lead the cloud contact center market growth and champion the value of the cloud to help contact centers of every size tap into the power and advantages of this next generation technology," said Mike Burkland, president and CEO, Five9 in a statement.

During the second quarter, the company received industry recognition for its solution as well: it was named an AlwaysOn OnDemand Top 100 Winner and received a 2013 CRM Excellence Award from TMC (News - Alert).